Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5097 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-05-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 711 minutes

DVD Description
Penned by the sitcom legend, David Renwick, (One Foot in the Grave, Jonathan Creek), Love Soup is a romantic comedy drama that takes at entertaining and provocative look at one woman's search for sanity, sex and a soul-mate. It stars Tamsin Greig (Green Wing, Black Books).

This box set contains both popular series.

Series 1:

What happens when your first love is a distant memory but you haven't yet found "the one"?

Alice Chenery (Tamsin Greig), is an account manager for a perfume company in a London department store, struggling to maintain a flat in Brighton she cannot afford. Michael Landes, (The Wonder Years and The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air) plays Gil Raymond, a successful American comedy writer who has fled his home country in search of artistic integrity and a lasting relationship. The parallel lives of this perfectly matched couple -- who have yet to meet each other -- unfold revealing their hopes, fears and dating disasters as they try to remain sane in a world from which they each feel increasingly excluded.

Series 2:

Will Alice's potential partners turn out to be any less bizarre, embarrassing or generally unsuitable than in the first series?

Alice is now an account manager for a perfume counter in a London department store. Millie and Cleo are her sweet, ever-so-slightly deranged staff, keen to see the funny, caring but somewhat reticent Alice find the happiness she deserves - and not above fighting each other in pursuit of their own. This series charts the highs and lows of the three girls' quirky encounters with the opposite sex, in search of all three's perfect match.

Alice's new friends drag her into the world of showbiz. There, her encounters with heartthrob actor Jake Randall, veteran comedian Gordon Bexter, madcap Marty Cady and a German necrophiliac only serve to increase her self-doubt. Could Douglas really be "the one"? Should she adopt the more off-beat attitude to romance shared by her perfume counter colleagues Millie and Cleo? Or could it really be possible that she lost her soul mate?

Synopsis
Every episode from the first and second series of Love Soup from hit writer David Renwick (Jonathan Creek, One Foot in the Grave). Starring Tamsin Greig (Green Wing, Black Books) and Sheridan Smith (Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps).

Customer Reviews

Salvaging a cockup....nearly
Series 1 was up there with Faulty Towers, Porridge and Only Fools and Horses. Then the BBC bottled it and didn't commission series 2, 3 and whatever based on the original premise where Alice and Gil would probably meet by the end of seies 2, and then take it from there. The BBC executive who dropped the ball at this point must be the son of the Decca A&R man that failed to sign up the Beatles.

As a result, by the time Series 2 was commissioned, Gil had to be written out because the actor, Michael Landes, was no longer available. As a result, we now follow only one storyline, so viewing time has been halved, putting the new series into more familiar sitcom country. Even so, it remains very funny..certainly if series 1 had never happened, this would still be the best thing since Del Boy went off the air.

A shame it changed mid-stream
The first series was something special -- two apparently unconnected stories running in parallel. The bitter-sweet quality was wonderful, and often the humour was beautifully under-stated. And we all so wanted the two characters to meet up.

The great shame, as the previous reviewer said, is that Michael Landes wasn't available to play Gil -- whose story-stream was possibly slightly darker with perhaps a more cerebral humour than Alice (Tamsin Greig)'s stream -- in the second series. As a result, while still good comedy (and I'm a great fan of Tamsin Greig), it's far more lightweight than the first, with too much concentration on the silly activities of Alice's two assistants. The programme became a totally different thing, going from bitter-sweet, warm humour to almost slapstick in places.

My suggestion to the BBC: do a Bobby Ewing. In other words, when Michael Landes is available again, grab him and film the series two that SHOULD have been, and quietly forget that he was killed off in the series two that was made.

Love Soup.
Buy it its a great show! if you liked "One Foot In The Grave" you will enjoy this, written by one of the best comedy writters of our day David Renwick, a very enjoyable and true to life comedy while you watch the show, you will know people just like the ones in Love Soup.